Circulating ball bearing track



May 22, 1962 H. 5. FALL CIRCULATING BALL BEARING TRACK Filed Aug. 29, 1960 //V//V//////A'//V/ ///\///////V////X/////////// INVENTU HERBERT 5. FALL W QM l 1 l 2 nm V m. ..w L vh m. 5 w I- IIIHMHMEWII k 5.

United States Patent 3,035,873 CIRCULATING BALL BEARING TRACK Herbert S. Fall, 6248 E. Iona Road, Indianapolis, Ind. Filed Aug. 29, 1960, Ser. No. 52,621 2 Claims. (Cl. 3083.8)

This invention relates to a track for supporting a chassis such as may be mounted in a cabinet, or may equally as well apply to any drawer or table which is to be moved on a track from one position to another. Heretofore, such tracks have widely been employed as simple frictional sliding structures wherein two or more parts telescope within a stationary mounting member.

The present invention employs two sets of circulating ball bearings between which sets a chassis mounting track member is supported and guided and carrying said sets is a second shiftable member providing retention of the two sets of ball bearings between a fixed mounting member and the chassis mounting member.

'The primary object of the invention is to provide a construction which will support heavy loads in a substantially frictionless manner to permit easy movement of the member to be supported, hereinafter termed, for an example, a chassis such as would be employed for carrying electronic devices. Such devices often add up by their components into considerable weight and therefore a ball bearing support, giving a rolling support rather than a straight friction support is of considerable advantage.

A further important object of the invention is to provide a structure of the above indicated nature which may be extremely slim in reference to its transverse thickness so that overall track device will occupy a minimum space leaving the maximum possible space for the chassis to be carried between track devices, one on each side. In many installations, space is at a premium, and therefore the mounting devices between adjacent equipment is required to occupy a minimum amount of space.

A unique feature of the invention resides in the fact that as the chassis mounting track section is moved upon pulling the chassis from one position to another, the track portion intermediate that chassis mounting portion and the frame or cabinet mounting portion will automatically travel substantially at half speed of the chassis mounting portion, thereby aiding in the reduction of effort required to shift the chassis.

These and many other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those versed in the art in the following description of one particular form of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in front perspective on a reduced scale of an installation embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a view in side elevation of the track alone;

FIG. 3 is a view in end elevation of the track;

FIG. 4 is a view in vertical section on the line 44 in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is a detail on an enlarged scale of an end portion of the track assembly, in partial section.

A track mounting plate designated by the numeral consists of a planar portion 11 from the bottom and top edges of which, are overturned flanges 12 and 13 respectively. These flanges 12 and 13 are spaced from the planar area 11 to permit insertion therebetwcen of top and bottom marginal longitudinal edge portions 14 and 15 of an intermediate plate 16. The plate 16 is free to be shifted in parallelism with the plate 10 and is confined to longitudinal travel therealong by these flanges 12 and 13. The height of the plate 16 is less than is the distance between the web portions 17 and 18 which intervene between the flanges 12 and 13 respectively and the plate 10.

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The plate 10 would, in the present example, be mounted along the inside vertical wall of a cabinet 19. That is, there would be a track portion 10 mounted on the op posing side walls 20 and 21 of the cabinet 19. These track portions 10 are fixed in position against longitudinal travel and also against vertical travel in respect to these walls 20 and 21. These track portions 10 are turned to have their flanges 12 and 13 on opposing sides thereof.

On the face of the plate 16 over which the flanges 12 and 13 extend, there is provided an upper elongated boss 22, having top and bottom ledges 23 and 24 merging one into the other around each end of the boss by a substantially semicircular ledge 25. These ledges 23 and 24 are parallel not only one with another, but also with the upper edge 14. The vertical height of the boss 22 is such that it is confined within the upper portion of the plate 16 above a longitudinal center line thereof.

A plurality of ball bearings 26 are placed around the ledges 23, 24 and 25 to be approximately in contact one with another, and are held by a keeper 27 therearound, and against the face of the plate :16 onto which the flange 12 extends. This keeper 27 consists of a shallow cupped, elongated plate, generally planar, but having its margin flanged into bearing retaining relationship as indicated best in FIG. 4. This keeper 27 is fixed to the plate 16, herein shown as through the boss 22.

In like manner, a second boss 28 is fixed to the lower part of the plate 16 to carry ball bearings 29 one approximately against the other entirely around its upper and lower ledges 30 and 31 respectively and each end 32 being a semicircular portion interconnecting the ledges 30 and 31. A ball bearing keeper 33 is fixed over the boss 28 to cup around the ball bearings both above and below the ledges 30 and 31 and the ends.

A second shiftable track section 34 is provided with rabbeted longitudinal edges 35 and 36 spaced apart that distance which will permit the insertion of the track portion 34 between the ball bearings 26 and 29 with but a few thousandths of one inch clearance. The track section 34 is retained in approximate sliding position in reference to the plate 16 by means of the upper and lower bearing retaining members 27 and 33 which extend beyond the opposing flights of bearings into the rabbets of the portion 34, FIGS. 3 and 4. The ball bearings 26 and 29 come into rolling contact with the extreme upper and lower margins 37 and 38 of the section 34.

Operation Referring to FIG. 2, with the chassis or drawer 40 fixed to and between the two track members 34, and upon pulling the drawer 40 outwardly as indicated in FIG. 1, the intermediate track portion 16 will advance from the fixed track portion 10 at substantially half speed of the travel of the portion 34 as indicated by the dash lines. Stops (not shown) will be provided to limit the outward travel to the right as indicated in FIG. 2, so that the two track members 34 and '16 will not become separated.

Analyzing this automatic half travel of the intermediate track portion 16, reference is made to FIG. 5, wherein the mounting member 34 is just started to be pulled from the end of the fixed portion 10. The intermediate portion 16 is shown to have advanced one half of the total travel of the member 34. The set of ball bearings 26 riding on the edge 37 will be carried one after another in the direction of the arrow applying to that set of bearings. In like manner, the other set of ball bearings 29 will advance around the boss 28 in the direction indicated by the arrow applying thereto. The bosses 22 and 28 riding respectively on the bearings over the edge 37 and the flange edge 13' will cause the ball bearings to travel in an ascending manner over the forward end 25 of the boss 22 3 whereas the balls 29 travel in a descending manner over the rounded end 32 of the boss 28. It is to be remembered that both the bosses 22 and 28 are in effect a part of the intermediate plate 16 so that the plate 16 will therefore travel the one half distance in a given time of travel of the member 34.

In this regard, there is the reactive etfect 'for example .of the balls 29 coming around and into rolling contact with the flange 13 tending to propel the member 16 as the balls one after another come around and bear against the flange 13. The sarne action is had by reason of the balls 26 coming around and bearing against the under edge of the flange 12 adding its effect to the propelling of the member 16 but at the same rate of applied force.

Therefore it is to be seen that there is not only the full extension of the track had by extending the rnember 34 from the member 16 in turn from the member 10, but that is done at the relative speeds indicated all with a rolling contact between the bearing and contacting members. The load is initially carried of course on the track member 34 which bears downwardly on the top flight of the balls 29 and as the track portion 34 is extended from the member 16, it tends to fulcrum over the forward bearings 29 at the right hand end, FIG. 5, of the boss 28 causing the rear upper edge of the member 34 to bear With increasing pressure against the lower flight of the bearings 26 all aiding in the action above indicated.

Therefore while I have described the device in the one particular form, it is obvious that structural changes may be employed, particularly in the manner of retaining the ball bearings in position on the member 16, so that these balls may be free to travel under roll-ing contact with the upper and lower contacting edge portions; and I therefore do not desire to be limited to the precise form beyond the limitations which may be imposed by the following claims.

I claim:

1. A slim track construction for shiftably supporting a heavily loaded member in cantilever manner, comprising the combination of a fixed vertically supported and disposed horizontally elongated planar support plate; top and bottom flanges overturned and laterally spaced from respective top and bottom plate portions terminating in spaced opposite edges; an intermediate planar plate having top and bottom portions sl-idably engaging laterally between said flanges and said fixed plate, freely shiftable longitudinally therealong; one set of vertically spaced apart parallel ledges extending along an upper portion of the face of said intermediate plate removed from said fixed plate, said ledges having rounded connected ledges at their respective ends; a second set of vertically spaced apart ledges parallel one with the other in upper and lower relation and extending horizontally along a lower portion of said face, these ledges being interconnected at respective ends by rounded ledges; a load carrying track section having a flat face directed toward and horizontally shiftable along said intermediate plate, located between and spaced by its top and bottom edges between the top and bottom of said intermediate plate upper and lower portion ledges; free ball bearings extending in approximate contact one with another entirely around both sets of ledges and end connections thereof to be in substantially rolling contact respectively in the one set between the under edge of said top flange and said upper ledge, and in the second set between the upper edge of the lower flange and the lower ledge; and means retaining said ball bearings in said rolling contacts.

2. The structure of claim 1 in which said retaining means comprises plate means carried by said intermediate plate and lapping freely over said ball bearings onto said load carrying track section.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,964,373 Paskin Dec. 13, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 730,922 France May 23, 1932 

